Chapter 5- Captivity II

A/N- Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them and considering how bad the last chapter was I hope you find this one slightly better. Sorry it took so long to put it up, I've been sick as a dog possibly with swine flu as my friend just had that himself.

+22 Hours

Echo emerged from the elevator seemingly emotionless, but to Alpha she recognized the very slight signs of success on his face. "Sierra you can go home now."

"We got it?"

"Yeah, I'll call you in the morning to brief you."

He turned to Alpha, "How's the Intersect?"

"Good."

"Bring him down to the range, I think it's time we started to give him some basic training."

***

Chuck walked uneasily into the room, as he turned the corner he paused. His kidnapper was there armed with Sarah's pistol and staring right at him. "Mr. Bartowski I understand your handler and Sarah never instructed you in the proper use of a gun?"

Chuck was slightly confused by the distinction the man appeared to place between Casey, his handler according to the kidnapper, and Sarah. "No I don't really like guns."

"I don't care you will learn to use a gun. I even chose one I think you might like, same model Sarah uses." He ejected the clip and replaced it with one that was sitting on the counter.

"Thanks, but I'll pass."

Echo handed him the handgun to Chuck who fumbled with it and nearly dropped it. "You're just giving me a handgun?"

Echo pushed the gun downrange and away from his body violently, "first rule don't aim it at someone you don't want to see get shot."

Chuck took a step back and a deep breath. He raised the weapon at Echo, "Which way is out?" He tried to play it off as a kind of joke, but his voice, and hand, quivered with weakness and fear. He hoped his kidnapper didn't challenge him, because he'd crumble like a house of cards.

The response was swift. Echo delivered a vicious left hand punch to Chuck's nose, as the blood started to erupt from it Echo delivered another one with his right hand to Chuck's eye. Neither was designed to cause any kind of damage just inflict some short term pain. Chuck pulled the trigger, when he didn't know whether to be happy or sad. The gun made the clicking sound he associated with a gun being empty which meant he didn't hurt anyone, but he was defenseless. The angry operative grabbed Chuck's left arm and forced him up against the wall face first. "I'm disappointed in you Chuck." He dislocated Chuck's left shoulder and let him slump to the floor moaning in pain. He tossed Chuck a towel, "Clean yourself up." He turned to Alpha, "Let me know when he's willing to actually learn."

She sat down next to Chuck, "You really shouldn't have done that."

He looked at her in disbelief, "What was I supposed to do? I'm here against my will! And he obviously didn't trust me the gun wasn't loaded."

"We told you we're holding you for your own good and we'll let you go in a short time."

"Yeah what with a bullet in the back of my head?"

"No," she ground out. She was proud of the work they did and for him to just act like they were the bad guys? She stared at Chuck for a minute, "How about this, if you behave and get some proper training I will make sure that you talk to Sarah by the end of the day after tomorrow."

Chuck looked at her, "I don't really have a choice do I?"

"Not really no." She looked at him, he was still in pain and had clearly just lost a fight, "I'll buy you an hour or so before you have to go again."

He groaned, "thanks I guess."

***

She ran to catch up to her boss, "hey Echo he says he'll do it just give him an hour."

"Why?"

"Well for one he's still in pain and for two we need to talk."

"About what?"

"Oscar Romeo wants to see him."

Echo stopped in his tracks, "When?"

"Now, you can't really be surprised that he wants to I mean we knew this would happen going in as soon as he caught wind of it."

"Okay give me a one day delay."

"I can buy you the Intersect's cooperation."

"How?"

"Let him call Sarah."

"I'd really rather not unless it's absolutely necessary."

"No listen, I've got an idea." He nodded, as she knew he would, he always listened to her ideas.
"We bounce the signal off the decoy house so it looks like that's where he's calling from, we blow it and they're going think Chuck's dead and then we're home free."

"Walker won't stop."

"No one's going to believe her and she won't be able to find him in the time allotted so we're fine."

"Don't underestimate Agent Walker."

"You like her don't you?"

"Walker?"

"Yeah, when you're talking about her, you sound different. You sound the same when you talk about a few of your other favorite activities." She winked suggestively at him.

"She was one of Graham's favorites and he was a friend."

"Why didn't you invite her in then?"

"She has a propensity for getting involved with others, which while she normally doesn't really become very emotionally attached it wouldn't be very good for team cohesion if she's dated half the team and of course you can see what happens when she's emotionally attached to someone."

She nodded, "I guess we can't all be unemotional robots."

"You're not, don't worry kid you are just able to separate your personal feelings and your job. Walker can't, if she has personal feelings towards a mark or asset they'll interfere, fortunately for her most of her marks aren't ones she has feelings for."

"Doesn't her dedication serve her well here?"

"And us, I've calculated it. No worries I've got everything planned out, we're going to be fine."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't worry, I've planned for her actions."

Alpha crossed her arms. "There's something you're not telling me isn't there?"

"Yes, I'm sorry but there are some operations that you aren't privy to."

"How important is this whole thing?"

"War winning."

Hey eyes went wide, "It's finished?"

"Team 10 is working on securing the final components and Oscar Romeo is obviously finishing up his portion of it."

"How much longer?"

"Less than a week probably."

"Cutting him loose or are we keeping him?"

"Loose, we can't afford him being associated with us."

"Why the training if he's not going to use it?"

"Team 1 isn't available for the infiltration, most of them have to deal with something out in western Mongolia and the rest are obviously needed at base."

"Why doesn't our Beijing team handle it? Britain is obviously pretty far from Mongolia."

"Beijing nearly got wiped out only two made it out alive."

"10 operatives down?"

"Might be eleven."

She fell into the seat behind her, she knew the war was getting bad, but to lose eleven operatives on one team? The Beijing branch wouldn't be back at 100% the rest of the year which even with Team 1 covering for the big problems they couldn't have a large part of team 1 fighting in Mongolia for long. Despite being the largest base by far London couldn't lose half its staff for better part of a year. It wouldn't work. "Damm."

"Yeah, so we need him to at least have some very, very basic proficiency with hand-to-hand and weapons."

"What if he gets hit going in?"

"Then I'm dead, I'll get all the blame or all the credit for this op."

"So if this goes off well, you're getting promoted aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"Well then I guess we better get back to training him, but you know we'll be lucky if he can hit the side of a barn by the end of the day."

"I think you might be surprised, I mean after all his missions have proved nothing, if not that he is a very quick learner."

She nodded, stood, and headed back into the door from whence she came.

***

"Ok Chuck I know your still hurting a bit, but I need you to do this for me okay?"

He nodded his lips in a tight unhappy line.

"Ok Chuck let's try this again without the violence okay?" She handed him the gun again, this time she knew it was armed with real bullets, granted if he attempted anything again she could easily disarm him.

He raised his right arm and lamely attempted to steady it with his left arm, his attempt at doing so clearly caused him some pain. He pulled the trigger. "Told you I wasn't a good shot," he said seeing the bullet completely miss the target.

"Ok, well let's see if we can start by improving your stance." She stepped up behind him, pushing herself into his back. He towered over her, but she didn't care she was however enjoying the feeling of closeness. He was reminding her of her old partner who was someone she knew she needed to forget, he was assigned to the Paris branch now.

She positioned his legs correctly and then turned her attention to his upper torso and arms. "Ok Chuck here, grip it like this." She said as her fingers danced over his moving his digits around and placing them into the proper position. "Ok here now, aim it like this." She gently tugged his right arm up and aimed at where the target was, although her aim was slightly obscured by his body. She then slowly brought his left arm over to the gun, "You okay? If it hurts too much let me know."

"I think I should go to a hospital."

"Chuck, I don't want to have to hurt you."

She felt him smile, when he smiled she could always tell it was a like a full body thing for him every part of him seemed to fill with laughter, or whatever emotion he was feeling. She steadied the gun and gently began applying some pressure to his fingers on the trigger, "Ok now pull the trigger." He complied.

It wasn't a good shot, but unlike the previous one it did hit the target. Ok, now let's do it again.

***

+ 1 Day 3 Hours

"You've certainly gotten better." She said as they stood outside his door. "You've still got a long way to go though. You'll have to keep practicing though."

"I'd really rather not and didn't you say I could call Sarah?"

"Maybe either when you wake up, or tonight." She pulled out her phone, "You can even use mine to prove that your conversation won't be bugged." She flipped it over in some attempt to show that it wasn't bugged.

"We'll try and work on some hand-to-hand tomorrow." She dropped the phone on the bed between them and made some kung-fu gestures with her hands.

"Why are we doing this? I'm not exactly agent material, Bryce got me kicked out for that—I don't like guns or killing—I really, really don't want to hurt anyone, besides I've got people to protect me."

She headed over to the door, "Yes because your handlers did such a great job protecting you from us."

"That was my fault I made Sarah get rid of all her weapons." He stood up slightly angry at the insinuation that Sarah and Casey weren't good at their jobs.

"And she complied, when she shouldn't have, because it was you who asked. If you're going to have a relationship with her then you are going to have to take some responsibility for your own protection. There is a reason that the CIA doesn't let their agents and assets have relationships together."

Chuck opened his mouth and closed it several times trying to figure out something to say, but he couldn't think of anything to counter her point.

"Goodnight Chuck." She said closing the door.

***

+22 Hours 30 minutes

"I think we need to bring in the director of the CIA." Sarah said as soon as Bryce finished his report.

"Agent Walker, we can handle it."

"With all due respect general I think we could use every resource we can get our hands on including the CIA."

Beckman was fuming, she'd just given this…this child permission to break rules and this was how she was repaying her? "Agent Walker I assure you that despite Larkin's small setback there is no need to risk compromising the entire Human Intersect project."

"General if we don't get Chuck back soon there won't be a Human Intersect project; we don't have much time before Chuck is gone forever."

Beckman glanced around at the other agents, Walker was right they would need more manpower, satellites, and analysts if they were going to get the asset back, "Agent Walker I will make the call."

Beckman stepped outside and dialed her rival. "Director Grimsdóttir, we have a situation of mutual concern I recommend you come to New York as soon as possible."

"We can't discuss it over the phone, the lines aren't secure enough."

"Get up here soon Sam it's a matter of national security."

Beckman stepped back into the room, "He'll be here in the next couple of hours."

"In the meantime is there anything else you might have missed Bryce?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing, like I said this guy was good, he didn't make any mistakes that I could tell."

"Well your report makes this guy seem like some kind James Bond." Sarah added coldly.

Bryce had had enough, "Sarah what is up with you? You aren't acting like yourself haven't been since I arrived."

"I don't know Bryce maybe it's because my asset is missing and no one can do ANYTHING to find him!"

"Sarah I think you need to calm down your tired, why don't you go catch a few hours until Director Grimsdóttir arrives."

"I do not need to calm down," She barely managed to keep her anger under control and avoid screaming. "I…I…I'm going to go for a jog around the block."

"Sarah-"

"-And then I'll grab a few hours. Wake me when Grimsdóttir arrives?"

"As long as you get some sleep."

***

+ 1 Day 3 Hours

Sarah was awoken by the sound of her phone ringing. She sprang up ready for action, she had been waiting for a call about Grimsdóttir arriving. She looked at it, but she didn't recognize the number. She picked it up anyway.

"Sarah?"

She thought her heart had stopped, "Chuck?"

"Sarah!" His happiness at finally getting to speak with Sarah was infectious and she broke out in a smile that she knew he was having to.

"Are you okay?" Please be okay, you have to be okay. She had collapsed back onto the bed unable to remain standing.

"I'm okay Sarah, I don't know how long I'll be able to talk to you she left her phone in my bed and I have no idea when she's next going to need it."

Sarah's normal emotional filters had fled at hearing his voice tell her he was okay, "Why was another woman in your bed?" You two better not have been doing what I was just dreaming about us doing. She knew that she didn't have to worry about Chuck, but her previous boyfriend hadn't exactly been a paragon on monogamy although neither had she.

"We were talking, apart from one guy here most the people here aren't too bad. She's actually been kind of nice to me."

"How nice?" Did he charm another woman already?

"Relax Sarah, although they did-wait are you clear?"

"Yeah I'm our bedroom." The one that we never got to properly use.

"They know about us." Chuck's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper.

The mention of their secret relationship brought her mind back from the jealous girlfriend to CIA Agent hunting for her asset/secret boyfriend "Chuck who has you and where are you?" Please have something besides what the morons at the NSA have come up with.

"I don't know Sarah they aren't Fulcrum, they're worldwide, but Sarah none of them are in the Intersect and I'm indoors somewhere I'm still in the city I don't know exactly where though."

They aren't in the Intersect? This is bad, real bad. "That's good Chuck, they haven't moved you very far yet. Did you see anything any buildings?"

"Sorry I didn't see any construction or anything of interest just skyscrapers."

"You didn't recognize any buildings?" Well at least I can rule out all areas with any kind of construction and he's not on the river.

"No they didn't exactly let me look around too much though. Sarah I have to go though I don't want them to know that I called you so I'll need to do a little nerd herder magic to erase the call." He said ending the call.

"You do your nerd herd magic on the phone, I'll do my super spy magic to get you back." She said to the empty room.

A/N- Please leave a review, I love to know what works and what doesn't. I won't be making you re-read the phone conversation from Chuck's pov next chapter, I learned that lesson.

Did you like the little thoughts in the phone convo? I've been toying with the idea of including them a bit so do you like 'em or no?

Going on vacation on Thursday so if the resort has internet hopefully I can give you update if not, I should have 1 (or more but I don't want to get your hopes up) ready to go when I return.